Heavy gunfire has erupted in Ivory Coast's two largest cities Abidjan and Bouake as the military pressed an operation aimed at ending a four-day nationwide army mutiny over bonus payments.
Loyalist troops began advancing towards Bouake, the epicentre of the revolt, on Sunday and sporadic gunfire was heard overnight there as well as at military camps in Abidjan. Shooting in both cities intensified before dawn on Monday.
"There was heavy shooting at the northern entrance to the city and in the city centre. It's calmed a bit but we're still hearing gunfire," said one Bouake resident. Other residents confirmed the shooting.
Heavy shooting was also heard in Daloa, a hub for the western cocoa growing regions. It was not immediately clear what impact the unrest might have on the flow of cocoa supplies.
The soldiers were revolting over delayed bonus payments, promised by the government after an earlier mutiny in January but not fully paid after a collapse in the price of cocoa, Ivory Coast's main export, caused a revenue crunch.
Ivory Coast has been touted as a post-war success story after emerging from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the world's fastest growing economies.
But society remains deeply divided and a wave of mutinies that began earlier this year has exposed the lack of unity in a military assembled from former rebel and loyalist combatants.
The 8400 mutineers, most of them former rebels who said they were promised bonuses for fighting to bring President Alassane Ouattara to power, received 5 million CFA francs $US8,400 ($A11,349) each to end the January uprising.
But the government has struggled to pay remaining bonuses of 7 million CFA francs.
At least eight people were shot by the mutineers in Bouake and the northern city of Korhogo on Saturday and Sunday as popular opposition against the revolt gathered momentum, sparking protest marches in several cities, including Abidjan. One man, a demobilised former rebel fighter, died on Sunday.
